In 1980, President Carter assembled top scientists in various domains to write a report of the problems we should expect to face in 2000. (If only politicians today were that forward-looking!) It was called the Global 2000 report and was a very thick volume. It does not mention global warming. The closest it comes is discussion of acid rain and of increased "desertification."
What I take from that is that in 1980, while there was some awareness of global warming, few scientists thought it would so quickly accelerate and become the central issue regarding the environment.
The consensus has indeed been forced into extreme caution when it came to dire predictions, there were so many voices accusing scientists of crying wolf. If someone in 1980 would have said that a heat wave would kill a tenth of the number of people it did in 2003, they would have been called dangerous extremists. In this respect nothing has changed, Termination Shock will be mistaken for a piece of history, like Dafoe's journal of the plague year...
What I take from that is that in 1980, while there was some awareness of global warming, few scientists thought it would so quickly accelerate and become the central issue regarding the environment.
[0] Summary of the report: https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/pdf-archive/glob...